Fuel cells have been used as a power source in many applications. Fuel cells have also been proposed for use in electrical vehicular power plants to replace internal combustion engines. However, many electric-powered vehicles require both a primary operating voltage and an auxiliary operating voltage. Typically, such vehicles require a high primary operating voltage, e.g. 400 volts DC, and a low auxiliary operating voltage, e.g. 12 volts DC. Conventional fuel cell arrangements provide a single supply power. Thus, supplying such dual operating voltages from a conventional fuel cell arrangement presents output voltage level problems.
As a partial solution, DC/DC boost converters, sometimes referred to as DC/DC step-up converters, have been proposed to increase the fuel cell supply voltage up to the required primary operating voltage, 400 VDC. However, conventional DC/DC boost converters do not supply the required auxiliary operating voltage, 12 VDC. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a DC/DC converter for receiving power from a fuel cell and producing both a primary and auxiliary output voltage.